Home Sweet Home

First of all, I have a confession. I've been scratching my head for more than a year trying to understand why people are so interested in blogging. My perspective was on the bloggee...or the reader of blogs. I could not fathom how people had the interest or time to add blogging to their daily diet of e-mail, v-m, text etc., Now that I am trying to communicate with dozens of people at once..about the last few days of my new zealand reality, I finally get it. Blogging is in the eye of the blogger. I can get the word out to my friends and family in one fell swoop...
On to this posting, which is about our housing experience. Or the first 24 hours in G'sborne.
Some background. When Brent first got this job, we were told we had a choice of housing. The search firm sent us a picture of a furnished apartment on the marina. It looked nice. But kind of sterile. Part of this "experience" in my mind was a bit of roughing it. Or at least going local. The thought of moving into a sterile apartment didn't feel right. The search firm then let us know we could move into a 3 bedroom furnished house on a river...close to the town. Now that sounded charming. A house on a river. 3 bedrooms could accommodate anyone who might visit. How exciting! I was thinking about Michigan of course. Something cosy with crazy colored painted walls and native Maori drawings on the wall. A place to drink the wine we will find in local vintages. A place I could learn to cook or paint.
We arrived in Gisborne after a day's worth of travel. Business class on Qantas made it quite bearable. They give you pajamas! A guy from the hospital picked us up to show us our new digs. We arrived to the house [which we had been able to scout out a bit on google maps satellite, but only saw the yard trees and "garage".].
The house had been occupied by people who had been in Gisborne the week prior for the Rhythem and Vines festival. A kind of Bonnaro/Woodstock/Ravinia thing. They apparently were big drinkers as there were about 100 empty beer bottles outside in the trash area. They hadn't taken out the trash - and the housecleaner reported the area was full of maggots. She was going to bring her pet pig by to eat the maggots [I am NOT kidding]. The master bedroom had one dresser, no closet, no nightstand, nothing but a mattress that I think would have been rejected by AJ's fraternity. Stains of many colors...and odors.
One bedroom was completed empty of any furnishings...but it did have a closet. The other two rooms had one dresser each and a single bed...with mattresses of equally moist and soiled condition. Nothing on any wall. Completely barren.
There was a washer..but no dryer. No AC or heating, save a wood burning stove. The location was gorgeous...on the river that cuts through town. We could have walked over a wooden draw bridge to get into town. But the house itself gave me nightmares. I pause for the following image. Brent putting fresh cut wood [from the maggot area] into the wood burning stove. Brent then hanging his golf shirts and sheets on the line to dry. Can you imagine?

I am now torn between wanting to be the down to earth, easy going, not spoiled, indulgent, demanding American doctor's wife...and thinking I will never take my shoes off in my own home. I will spare you the details...but we ended up being able to swap this house with a corporate apartment that the hospital has leased in a lovely little hotel on the marina. The landlord is an incredible woman - Katherine - who is a Landmark Education graduate [as are her three kids]. She has been amazing. Bought us all sorts of things to get us settled in the apartment including a barbecue, bookshelf, armoire [the closet is about 2 feet wide and was full after Brent emptied half of one suitcase], french coffee roaster and table mats.

We are now happily tucked into a ground floor apartment with a small patio that overlooks the marina. People, canoes, kayaks, freighters and speedboats wander by from sunrise to well past nine p.m. We have TWO flat screened TVs [Brent is in heaven], a small kitchen with mini dishwasher and fridge, and a washer and dryer in our bathroom. It is about 1/6th the size of our house in HP..but clean, extremely convenient and about 10 minutes from the hospital.
Our new address is: Portside Hotel Room 105 2 Reads Quay Gisborne NZ. Here is a link to the site: http://www.portsidegisborne.co.nz/ As you watch the slideshow, there is one of our corner apartment - the one right behind the vertical sign.

As we are attached to the hotel, we can easily accommodate visitors. Hint Hint.